Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 22 ISSUE 1
Written by Daniel DICU, Radu BERTICI, Mihai HERBEI, Florin SALA

The study evaluated the quality of the soil within an agricultural area, the category of pasture use, in terms of agrochemical indices. A surface of 485.94 ha was studied, from the area of Brebu Nou locality, Caras-Severin County, Romania. The agricultural land under study falls into the category of pasture use. Soil samples were taken, and the agrochemical indices determined for the evaluation of the studied agricultural land were represented by the soil pH, humus content (H, %), phosphorus content (P, ppm), potassium content (K, ppm), nitrogen index (NI, %), and the degree of supply of basic cationic (V, %). The data obtained for the 119 studied plots were grouped in 10 groups, depending on the pH value, with a variation of 0.1 pH units per group. Based on the determined agrochemical indices, a high variability was found regarding the soil supply with phosphorus (CV_P = 56.1509) and the soil supply with potassium (CV_K = 42.5579). Low values of CV were recorded for pH (CV_pH = 4.7231) and for humus (CV_H= 5.2127), and intermediate values for NI (CV_NI = 25.2418) and for V (CV_V = 24.8559). From the analysis of the average values, on the 10 groups obtained, it was found that 79% of the studied area (385.15 ha) has a strongly acidic pH (groups G1 - G7), and 21% of the surface (100.79 ha) has a moderate acidic pH (groups G8 - G10). According to the PCA, PC1 explained 44.051% of the variance and PC2 explained 32.812% of the variance. Regression analysis facilitated the obtaining of models in the form of equations (p <0.001, R² = 0.764 to R² = 0.827), and 3D and isoquants graphical models, which described the variation of phosphorus and potassium in relation to soil acidity and soil humus.

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